This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-22853282

The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Gwent chief constable told to quit by police commissioner Gwent chief constable told to quit by police commissioner
(about 1 hour later)
A Police and Crime Commissioner has admitted he told his chief constable to retire or quit. Gwent's police and crime commissioner had admitted he ordered the force's chief constable, Carmel Napier, to retire or be forced out of office.
Gwent PCC Ian Johnston told BBC Radio Wales that Carmel Napier's "management style was totally unacceptable". Ian Johnston claimed Ms Napier was hostile to the appointment of police commissioners and that the relationship "was never going to work."
Mr Johnston said: "The relationship was never going to work because one of the parties never accepted the concept of police and crime commissioners." He spoke out after South Wales Argus obtained leaked documents.
Ms Napier has been contacted by the BBC Wales for a response to Mr Johnston's comments. MP Paul Flynn said the situation was "absolute disgrace". Mrs Napier has not yet responded.
Mr Johnston spoke after the local newspaper, the South Wales Argus, obtained leaked documents showing that he had asked her to go. Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, Mr Johnston, a former chief superintendent, said: "I had a civilised discussion with the chief constable, I thought we had an agreement that she would retire and access her pension and lump sum and we'd both call it a day.
He told Good Morning Wales that one of the options Ms Napier had was to "test" the evidence he had. "But obviously somebody has leaked this document to the (South Wales) Argus and it's not me and it's not my staff.
"I can assure you that the evidence I had was absolutely compelling," he said. "I'm not going to deny that the meeting took place, I'm not going top deny the details in the Argus are not true."
The PCC said Ms Napier did not accept his role. Speaking after Mr Johnston's attack on the former police chief, Newport West MP Paul Flynn said that it would be disgraceful if Mrs Napier's talents had been lost "because of the arrogance of a PCC who is a retired policeman anyway, with old-fashioned ideas".
Mr Johnston added: "The morale in the force is the lowest it's ever been." On Mr Johnston, he said: "I find him very uninspiring as a person and as a PCC and I believe he was out to get rid of the chief constable."
He went on: "I had a civilised discussion with the chief constable, I thought we had an agreement that she would retire and access her pension and lump sum and we'd both call it a day. "I believe if there's any demoralisation of the force it's because the chief constable has been removed. There's a great deal of loyalty to the chief constable.
"But obviously somebody has leaked this document to the Argus and it's not me and it's not my staff. I'm not going to deny that the meeting took place, I'm not going to deny the details in the Argus are not true." "I believe that Ian Johnston listens only to those voices he wants to hear."
Crime figures However, Mr Johnston insisted he had done everything within his power to make the relationship work.
In the leaked documents, Mr Johnston told Ms Napier she had lost the confidence of her officers and staff. Her managerial style was, he alleged, "unacceptably dismissive, abrupt and unhelpful" and he claimed she had failed appropriately to manage internal and external relations and she was "deeply hostile" to the commissioner's role. But, he claimed, Mrs Napier had lost the confidence of her officers, that her managerial style to be "unacceptably dismissive, abrupt and unhelpful" and she had failed appropriately to manage internal and external relations as well as being "deeply hostile" to the commissioner's role.
Mr Johnston said, as a former police detective, he would not have made the accusations "if I didn't have the evidence to prove them". The two had had public disagreements over recent crime figures and had also clashed over the closure of several police station front desks in the force area.
The pair met following a public disagreement about crime figures, but Mr Johnston said he was not reacting to that disagreement by giving Ms Napier the ultimatum. "The public disagreement, which has been going on for some time but has only appeared in the media in recent months, is much broader than the crime statistics themselves," he added.
He said: "The public disagreement, which has been going on for some time but has only appeared in the media in recent months, is much broader than the crime statistics themselves.
"My view, and it's obviously not shared by the retired chief constable, was that the crime statistics were being managed in such a way that we were obsessed with reducing the level of recorded crime and we had actually forgotten that we were here to serve the public of Gwent."My view, and it's obviously not shared by the retired chief constable, was that the crime statistics were being managed in such a way that we were obsessed with reducing the level of recorded crime and we had actually forgotten that we were here to serve the public of Gwent.
"And the public feedback that I was getting was that officers were spending more time on the radio deciding if something should be a crime incident than they were actually getting on and dealing with it." In the leaked documents, Mr Johnston told Ms Napier she had lost the confidence of her officers and staff.
He claimed that as a former police detective, he would not have made the accusations "if I didn't have the evidence to prove them" and denied, when challenged, that his own managerial style was at fault.
Mr Johnston insisted he made "huge" efforts to make their relationship work, saying he "compromised on everything I got a downright refusal on" for more than five months.